Lose this week and the Dragons are still in the top eight, still heading for the finals, so it’s not really a must-win in that respect.

But I think they need a win, and a decent one, to give them a bit of confidence and a bit of self-belief.

They need to believe that they can win, that they can hold out another team. They need to get back to that form we saw earlier in the year - and even a month and a half ago against the Sea Eagles - where their stonewall defence would simply shut down opponents.

Oh how I long for those days, when I could watch the Dragons without a bit of nervousness. These days, it’s a bit different - I cheer when they get ahead but there’s that nagging voice in the back of my head that’s saying ‘‘they could still lose’’. It’s a voice I haven’t heard with any regularity since 2008 - and I don’t like one little bit that it’s returned.

So not only will a win give the Dragons some confidence, it’ll go a long way to shutting up that voice in my head.

There’s no doubt the Dragons are on the right track. They showed a lot more hunger and resolve in last week’s match against the Tigers. The effort there was a big improvement on the awfulness of the capitulation at the hands of the Bunnies a week earlier.

Now the trick is to keep that improvement going, and the Dragons have a huge chance to do that this Sunday.

If you were looking for a team to face when you needed play yourself into some form, it’d have to be the Roosters. Grand finalists last year, they’ve experienced a mighty fall and find themselves desperately battling to avoid the wooden spoon.

Should they get it they’ll earn a dubious honour - spooners in 2009, grand finalists in 2010 and back to spooners in 2011.

On top of their general woes, the time bomb known as Todd Carney has gone off this week. He, Nate Miles and Frank-Paul Nuuausala have been dropped after breaking a team-imposed booze ban.